OUAS + CSI + S4H

Supplies: yellow/green patterned paper (7 Gypsies), all other papers (Cosmo Cricket), alphabet stickers (Echo Park), all other stickers (Cosmo Cricket), lace (Jeanette Crews Designs), adhesives (3M), pen (Zig).

Well, the warm weather that I wrote about in my last post is already gone.  Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.  Yesterday the temperatures hovered around freezing, and we had a messy mix of rain and snow.  Today the temps are below freezing--BRRR!  But that's okay; the colder temps got me in the mood to complete a New Year's Eve layout, which you see in the photo above.

The title of my layout is "Road Trip."  This time for Once Upon a ... Sketch, we were to write about New Year's Eve.  My journaling reads: "When I was in college, my friends and I always celebrated the end of the year with a road trip.  Our journey took us to Freeport (to eat at Charlie's Cafe), Morris (to visit friends), and Alexandria.  In Alex we'd visit Big Ole (the Viking statue), then kick back at our friend Rick's annual New Year's Eve party."  In the photos you can see the smiley faced Freeport water tower and the Alexandria Viking statue.  We like our silly, whimsical landmarks in Minnesota.  :)  You can also see me at the wheel.  I think I'm nineteen years old in that snap.

I've combined the Once Upon a ... Sketch challenge with the brand new  Colors, Stories, Inspiration (C. S. I.) challenge.  In addition to drawing my color scheme from CSI, I also had to incorporate some items from the CSI Case File that you see below.  From "Testimony" I chose "journal on tags."  Since my layout is about travel, I journaled on stickers shaped like luggage tags.  From "Evidence" I chose "distressing" and "lace."

The lace is from a cross stitch bookmark project (see photo below).  I started the project back in the late 1990's, and I think it's safe to say that I am never going to finish it.  So, I cut off some of the lace to use on my layout.

My poor, neglected cross stitch project...  I've breathed new life into it by using some of the lace on my layout.  I'm sure that the rest of the lace, and perhaps some of the canvas as well, will eventually make it onto other papercraft projects.

Since I've included repurposed lace on this layout, I'm also entering the layout in the current Scrap for Help challenge.  Wow--one project for three challenges!  For me, that's a lot.  But it was really fun creating this layout, taking a walk down memory lane back to my college days.  I hope that you've had fun seeing the layout and some of our quirky Minnesota landmarks.  TFL!

ETA: My layout is being featured at Scrap for Help for the month of February, 2012.  A big thank you to all the ladies who voted for it.  Hope that lots of people will play along with the February challenge at Scrap for Help...see you there!